Friday, 26 June 2015

Hellblazer

This was an interesting experience; reading
through twenty year’s worth of a single title as essentially a single work. While
I was peripherally aware of John Constantine he’s not exactly an A-list character.
Spiderman, say, is well enough established in nerd culture that I could
probably bluff my way through a conversation about him despite the fact I’ve
never read one of the comics, but I (and I suspect most) couldn’t say the same
here. The upshot of this is that there’s this massive, historically embedded
run of storyline to which I’m coming more-or-less spoiler free.

Jamie
Delano, 1988-1991 (5 volumes)

The first iteration, and very much of its
time and place. The opening few issues do that interconnected thing where you
need to know that Constantine and Swamp Thing have some sort of connection
(which is still as accurately as I'm able to describe it) for some key
situations to make much sense, but that aside then this is a bygone alternative
comedian's take on Britain under Thatcher, without too much in the way of
comedy. For all that I mock (gently), and for all that the social commentary is
not especially subtle, this sense of time and place is vital in grounding what would
otherwise be some fairly generic horror tropes. And thus it works; had it not
all the rest of this would have been moot.

Garth
Ennis, 1991-1995 (6)

This is the good stuff. A slightly more
nuanced take on social commentary, interesting and relatable secondary
characters, and less in the way of psychedelica and unsatisfyingly easy
counter-cultural juxtapositions. Great supporting characters too; Kit's
fantastic and The First of the Fallen, despite the usual problems with escalating
tension when the principle antagonist it the devil himself, is a pleasingly sly
yet petulant incarnation of the character. If the Royal Blood storyline skates a little too closely to From Hell, well, this can be forgiven;
if you're going to steal from someone, you might as well steal from someone
good. In fact, given Constantine's origins, hard not to conclude that this is
anything other than a tribute.

Warren
Ellis, 1999 (2)

Paul Jenkins's run is missing from this
little (!) collection, so we skip to the other Ellis's all too short period of
custody. Map is a great creation, and if the Haunted arc relies a little too much on (another) one of
Constantine's ex-girlfriends getting nixed in order to provide motivation, then
the single issue storylines only serve to give tantalizing hints of what might
have been had Ellis stayed in control. All the more so because he was followed
by…

Brain
Azzarello, 2000-2002 (4)

John Constantine takes an American
interlude. Facile.

Mike
Carey, 2002-2006 (6)

Back on
track after that embarrassing little sojourn stateside. More or less. You
forget that this is part of the same DC universe as Sandman and Lucifer, but
I guess if you hand the reins to the writer of the latter then you have to
expect some of that to bleed through. The three lifetimes in one day conceit is
nicely (by which I mean harrowingly) done and it sets up perhaps the strongest
single long-term story arc in the canon.

Denise
Marina, 2006-2007 (2)

Summer Isle transplanted to Glasgow, and
with added English vs Scottish jingoism thrown in for good measure. Liked this
a lot, actually, and good to see some of JC's female companions not getting
mystically fridged but forcing the pace by themselves.

Andy
Diggle, 2007-09 (3)

Peter Milligan's closing leg is likewise
missing, so we finish up with Andy Diggle's residency, which is all right, but
nothing special. The 'evil twin' is a bit tired as tropes go, wouldn't you say?

So, with the addition of three spin-off
volumes (Papa Midnite, Lady Constantine,
Chas: The Knowledge), where does that leave us? Firstly, with the
unsurprising observation that comic art, or at least the technology supporting
it, has got significantly better over the last quarter of a century. This perhaps
dates the earlier volumes even more than the subject matter, which in many ways
remains depressingly relevant, as the broadsides Delano aimed at Thatcher come
full circle with another Tory government seemingly doing all they can to widen
the divide between the haves and the have-nots.

I digress. While Delano was the most open
with the social commentary (with the possible exception of Azzarello, but the
less said about that the better), most of the other writers have tended to go
more for the character study or horror angles, and all of them have hewn to
Vonnegut's advice to 'make awful things happen' to their characters. The most
successful (Both Ennis and Ellis, Marina, maybe Carey) managed to leaven the
unrelenting shitstorm that is Constantine's life by having him retain a good
measure of wit and rakish charm. The worst (go on, guess) just kind of assumed
he's a sex symbol because, well… I dunno. The accent?

Still, at his best John Constantine does
exactly what a good anti-hero should, which is make you root for him even
though you know he's an arsehole. Even better, he knows it himself, and it's
his self awareness which lifts him above run-of-the-mill. I know it seems
slightly perverse given the amount of time that's passed since the first issue,
but it's actually kind of refreshing to meet a character not in need of a gritty reboot, because they've always been mired
in filth. So he's an arsehole, but he's my kind of arsehole, and I'll
definitely take that to be getting on with.

2 comments:

...must be interesting to read through all of these in a relatively short time span, indeed a snapshot of 20 years of development of comics and a character.

For me, the Delano (dated as it is) and the Ennis characterization of Constantine is the definite, so I had difficulties appreciating the later writers versions as good as they might be standing on their own.

I also agree that Azzarello's run on the series was complete and utter crap, that should not have been done with the Constantine character. With the exception that I completely loved the prison chapter (Hard time), but that's probably because I love the art of Corben and have a weak spot for prison stories...

I think growing up in the south of England in the 80's probably means Delano's stuff dates less well for me. I can definitely see how he defines the character though. I think the more successful post-Ennis writers shift the focus away from Constantine a bit; maybe they realised there wasn't much room left for them do do much with him?

Talking of prison stories, I'm working through The Punisher volumes right now, dipping some toes in the Marvel Universe. Write up as and when (and thanks again, as well ;)